Anas al-Basha, 24 year old was a social worker in Aleppo. It was the director of the center "a space for hope", one of many important local initiatives for children, and provided services of civil society in war-torn areas in Syria.

He was a clown ... and with him the children were smiling and joking.

Anas was killed Tuesday, November 29, 2016, during a Russian air attack on the Mashhad district, on the part of the besieged city of Aleppo-east.

Building on the UN
summit to address large movements of refugees and migrants

By Rene
Wadlow

On 19 September
2016, the UN General Assembly held a one-day Summit on
« Addressing Large Movements o Refugees and Migrants » – a
complex of issues which have become important and emotional
issues in many countries. Restrictive migration policies
deny many migrants the possibility of acquiring a regular
migrant status, and as a result, the migrants end up being
in an irregular or undocumented situation in the receiving
country and can be exposed to exploitation and serious
violations of human rights.

Citizens o the
world have been actively concerned with the issues of
migrants, refugees, the « stateless » and those displaced by
armed conflcts within their own country. Thus we welcome
the spirit of the Summit Declaration with its emphasis on
cooperative action, a humane sense of sharing the
responsibilities for refugees and migrants and on seeking
root causes of migration and refugee flows. There are three
issues mentioned in the Summit Declaration which merit
follow up action among the UN Secretariat, world citizens
and other non-governmental organizations :

1) The migration
of youth ;

2) The strong
link between migration, refugee flows, and improving the
structures for the resolution of armed conflicts ;

3) Developing
furher cooperation among non-governmental organizations for
the protection and integration of refugees and migrants.

The Migration
of Youth

Youth leave their
country of birth to seek a better life and also to escape
war, poverty, and misfortune. We should add to an analysis
of trans-frontier youth migration a very large numbe of
youth who leave their home villages to migrate toward cities
within their own country. Without accurate informaion and
analysis of both internal and trans-frontier migration of
youth, it is difficult to deelop appropiate policies for
employment, housing, education and health care of young
migrants and refugees. It is estimated that there are some
10 million refugee children, and most are not in school.

Studies have
noted an increasing feminization of trans-frontier migration
in which the female migrant moves abroad as a wage earner,
especially as a domestic worker rather than as an
accompannying family member. Migrant domestic workers are
often exposed to abuse, exploitation and discrimination
based on gender, ethnicity and occupation. Domestic workers
are often underpaid, their working conditions poor and
sometimes dangerous. Their bargaining power is severly
limited. Thus, there is a need to develop legally enforeable
contracts of employment, setting out minimum wages, maximum
hours of work and responsibilities ;

The Association
of World Citizens recommends that there be in the follow ups
to the Summit, a special focus on youth, their needs as well
as possibilities for positive actions by youth.

The strong
link between migration, refugee flows, and improving the
structures for the resolution of armed conflicts.

The United
Nations General Assembly which follows immediately the
Migration-Refugee Summit is facing the need for action on a
large number of armed conflicts in which Member States are
involved. In some of these conflicts the United Natins has
provided mediators ; in others, UN peace-keepes are
present. In nearly all these armed conflicts, there have
been internally-displaced persons as well as trans-frontier
refugees. Therefore there is an urgent need to review the
linkages between armed conflict and refugee flows. There
needs to be a realistic examination as to why some of these
armed conflicts have lasted as long as they have and why
negotiations in good faith have not been undertaken or have
not led to the resolution of these armed conflicts. Such
reflections must aim at improvements of structures and
procedures.

Developing
further cooperation among non-governmental organizations
for the protection and integration of refugees and
migrants.

We welcome the
emphasis in the Summit Declaratin on the important rôle that
non-governmental organizations play in providing direct
services to refugees and migrants. NGOs also lobby
government authorities on migration legislation and develop
public awareness campaigns. The Summit has stressed the
need to focus on future policies taking into account climate
change and the growing globalization of trade, finance, and
economic activities. Thus, there needs to be strong
cooperation among the UN and its Agencies, national
governments, and NGOs to deal more adequately with current
challenges and to plan for the future. Inclusive structures
for such cooperation are needed.

Rene Wadlow is the President of
the Association of World Citizens, an international peace
organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the
United Nations organ facilitating international
cooperation on and problem-solving in economic and social
issues.

The United Nations General Assembly
has designated 19 August as “World Humanitarian
Day” to pay tribute to aid workers in humanitarian
service in difficult and often dangerous
conditions. 19 August was designated in memory of
the 19 August 2003 bombing of the UN office
building in Baghdad, Iraq in which Sergio Vieira
de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
and at the time Special Representative of the UN
Secretary General was killed along with 21 UN
staff members. Over 200 UN employees were injured.
The exact circumstances of the attack are not
known, and why USA and UN security around the
building was not tighter is still not clear. A
truck with explosives was able to dive next to the
building and then blew itself up.

Sergio de Mellow had spent
his UN career in humanitarian efforts, often with
the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and
at othertimes
as Special Representative of the UN Secretary
General. As an NGO representative to the UN in
Geneva and active on human rights issues, I knew him
during his short 2002-2003 tenure as High
Commissioner for Human Rights. Many of us had high
hopes that his dynamism, relative youth (he was 54)
and wide experience in conflict resolution efforts
would provide new possibilities for human rights
efforts. His death along with the death of others
who had been Geneva-based was a stark reminder of
the risks that exist for all engaged in humanitarian
and conflict resolution work.

This year the risks and
dangers are not just memories but are daily news. On
3 May 2016, the UN Security Council unanimously
adopted Resolution 2286 calling for greater
protection for health care institutions and
personnel in light of recent attacks against
hospitals and clinics in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South
Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and
Afghanistan.These
attacks on medical facilities are too frequent to be
considered “collateral damage.” The attacks indicate
a dangerous trend of non-compliance with world law
by both State and non- State agents.The
protection of medical personnel and thetreatment of
all the wounded − both allies and enemies − goes
back to the start of humanitarian law.

The Association of World
Citizens has stressed the need for accountability,
including by investigation of alleged violations of
the laws of war.The
grave violations by the Islamic State (ISIS) must be
protested by as wide a coalition of concerned voices
as possible. There is a real danger that as ISIS
disintegrates and no longer controls as much
territory, it will increase terrorist actions.

The laws of war, now more
often called humanitarian law, have two wings, one
dealing with the treatment of medical personnel in
armed conflict situations, the military wounded,
prisoners of war, and the protection of civilians.
This wing is represented by the Geneva (Red Cross)
Conventions. The second wing, often called The Hague
Conventions limit or ban outright the use of certain
categories of weapons. Theseefforts began
at The Hague with the 1900 peace conferences and
have continued even if the more recent limitations
on land mines, cluster weapons and chemical weapons
have been negotiated elsewhere.

The ban on
the use of weapons are binding only on States which
have ratified the convention. Thus the current use
of USA-made cluster weapons in Yemen by the Saudi
Arabia-led coalition is, in a narrow sense, legal as
the USA, Saudi Arabia and Yemen have not signed the
cluster weapon ban. The Association of World
Citizens was one of the NGOs leading the campaign
against cluster weapons. My position is that when a
large number of States ratify a convention (which is
the case for the cluster-weapons ban) then the
convention becomes world law and so must be followed
by all States and non-State actors even if they have
not signed or ratified the convention. The same
holds true for the use of land mines currently being
widely used by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The current situation
concerning refugees and internally-displaced persons
can also be considered as part of humanitarian law.Thus those
working with refugees and the displaced within their
country are also to be honored by the World
Humanitarian Day.To prevent and alleviate human suffering, to
protect life and health and to ensure respect for
the human person − these are the core values of
humanitarian law.

There needs to be a wide
public outcry in the defense of humanitarian law so
that violations can be reduced. The time for action
is now.